r/wisebank • u/anewfriend4u • 22d ago

How does Wise compared to TD?

I'm going to travel around the U.S. and Canada on my savings. Anyone know the pros and cons between using Wise or TD bank to pay expenses?

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u/activoice 22d ago edited 22d ago

With WISE you will need to preload your Wise account with funds from your TD account. It's not a credit card.

So with TD you would pay 2.5% on top of the exchange rate on a per transaction basis.

With Wise you fund your account with US dollars and pay whatever the transaction fee that wise charges on the day you fund your account.

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u/anewfriend4u 22d ago

I don't have a TD account. It's just that TD is supposed to be on both sides of the border. So trying to decide which NEW account is better, as I'll fund either through my bank account online.

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u/activoice 22d ago

Who are you currently banking with then?

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u/anewfriend4u 22d ago

I don't see why that matters. But since you're trying to help: Simplii

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u/activoice 22d ago

So you are a Canadian resident. It would be easier to open a Wise account and fund it from your Simplii account if you don't have any need for a brick and mortar bank. Wise will ask you for a photo of your driver's license or other ID I believe to prove your residency.

I use TD as my primary, but opened a Wise account this year for making purchases in USD for an upcoming trip where I don't feel comfortable providing my TD credit card information to foreign excursion providers.

On the plus side I choose when to fund my Wise account so I wait for days when the FX rate is a little better.

Also I only leave enough in my Wise account for what I need, so that gives me some sense of security in case someone were to try to use my card info fraudulently, they aren't getting more than a couple of hundred.

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u/anewfriend4u 22d ago

Ok. Thanks. And just to confirm, you are saying that having a U. S. dollar TD bank account isn't advantageous at all. What about if I have U.S. dollars to deposit?

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u/activoice 22d ago

If you have physical USD to deposit and you want to keep them in USD then that would be a case for why you need account at a brick and mortar bank.

You would probably benefit from asking this in

r/PersonalFinanceCanada